In the history of stringed instruments, many instruments are known having more than the six strings found on a traditional Spanish-style guitar. Even guitars have been known to have more than six strings, such as the Ramirez ten string classical guitar built for Narciso Yepes. However, such guitars have been highly unusual and invariably strung with nylon strings. Also, when guitars have had more than six strings they have invariably followed a different tuning pattern from the standard guitar of today which is from low to high, E, A, D, G , B, and E.
With the subsequent advent of the electric guitar, some rare examples of steel strung guitars having more than six strings tuned to different notes became known. For examples, the Gretsch Van Eps model which had seven strings, with a B string added to the lower end of the conventional six string guitar tuning. This guitar was designed so that musicians could imitate the bass walking line of a double bass in a Be-Bop context. The guitar had amplified pick-ups and the steel strings vibrating within the magnetic domain of the pick-ups caused the pick-ups to put out an electrical signal indicative of the vibrating string. In this prior art guitar, the pick-ups had to be set up so that they did not distort the sound of the vibrating strings since any note below a low D, when distorted, becomes incredibly muddy and unpleasant sounding. The low B string also tended to rattle at the nut, but the Gretsch Van Eps model was in fact a fine guitar when played cleanly and even the rattling of the low B string was almost in character with the mild slapping technique of a jazz bass popular at that particular time in our music history.
Although string instruments having more than six strings are well known, when it comes to guitars, they have typically been limited to six-string (or six pairs of strings, as in the case of a twelve-string guitar). As indicated above, the Gretsch Van Eps model guitar was a seven-string electric guitar with an added low B string. In 1988, Alex Gregory, the inventor named herein, developed a new electric seven-string guitar which has an added top A metal string as opposed to an added low B string to the standard guitar tuning. A high A metal string, because it is so thin, had a tendency to break in use in the prior art, but Alex Gregory, the inventor of the present invention, developed a seven string guitar which overcame the breakage problem theretofore associated with the top A string. These developments are the subject of Alex Gregory's U.S. patent applications Ser. Nos. 436,559; 636,503 and 636,416 filed Nov. 1, 1989 and Dec. 31, 1990, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by this reference. The techniques which Alex Gregory used to overcome the string breakage problem included the use of unorthodox staggered headmachines which would adjust the individual tension of each string over a straight headstock. The seven string guitar works very well and has been sold in the past by Hamer Guitars and will be marketed in the future by Fender Musical Instruments.
In today's modern music, rock music is influencing and being influenced by both classical and country music to a greater extent than heretofore known. This sort of influence has made it desirable to be able to play violin influenced music on an electrical guitar. The conventional six string Spanish-style guitar does not satisfy this need because it cannot play a sufficiently wide range of notes due to its limitation of six strings. However, adding additional strings to a guitar type instrument in order to give it a wider range of notes is not a simple matter. As indicated above, the addition of a top A string led to string breakage problems which was only recently solved by Alex Gregory by the invention noted above. The addition of a low B string, which was previously done on the Gretsch Van Eps model guitar, leads to a string which tends to rattle and while that rattling string might be in character with certain types of jazz music, it is not in character or desirable in the current text of classical violin pieces, classical piano pieces, or even modern rock pieces influenced by classical music.
The present invention provides a guitar type instrument having eight strings, the six middle strings being tuned to the standard guitar tuning with an added high A string and an added low B string. The present invention presents additional ways of overcoming the breakage of the high A string first addressed by Alex Gregory as noted above, and also teaches how the low B string can be kept from rattling.
The guitar-like instrument of the present invention should be played cleanly, that is without its pick-ups going into distortion, because the low B string, when distorted, still sounds muddy. However, given the fact that the guitar-like instrument of the present invention can be used to play classical piano pieces and since the piano itself is not a distorted instrument, playing the guitar-like instrument of the present invention cleanly (without distortion) is completely consistent with this type of music. Therefore, the strings on the present guitar-like instrument are tuned B, E, A, D, G, B, E, A, from low to high. The strings are preferably metal (so they can be picked up and amplified) and the scale length is preferably the more or less standard 251/2" scale length which is very popular in modern guitars.
In order to overcome the string breakage problem, in the case of the high A string, and the string rattling problem, in the case of the low B string, these strings are preferably tilted toward the headstock approximately 2.degree., in the case of the high A string, and 22.degree. in the case of the low B string, from the plane in which the strings normally are disposed between the nut of the guitar and the bridge of the guitar. The remaining strings, mainly the six strings found on conventional guitars, are preferably tilted back 9.degree. to 14.degree. and preferably 12.degree. from the plane in which the strings normally sit.
The compound headstock of the present invention permits the low B string to exit the nut at a relatively steep angle of 22.degree. but at the same time permits the high A string to exit the nut at a very modest angle of only 2.degree.. This is done by providing a headstock which has a major front and back surface for mounting the tuning machines associated with the six strings which are tuned to the standard tuning of a six string electrical guitar but having a compound surface so that different front and back surfaces are provided for mounting the string machine associated with low B strings and providing still different front and rear surfaces for mounting the string machine associated with the high A string. Thus, instead of mounting all of the headmachines on a uniform surface, such as done in the prior art, the compound headstock of the present invention provides surfaces at different levels for mounting the headmachines so as to accommodate the different angles which the strings exiting the nut toward the headmachines should have in order to overcome the problems discussed above.